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Monday, April 30, 2012

Book Review: Crazy Concoctions by Jordan Brown

This week's book review is in response to questions I've received about science experiments. Where do I get my ideas? The answer is easy, from books of course! For the past month, Bobo and I have been using the Crazy Concoctions guide.

Like all experiment books, it is not meant to be read from cover to cover. Thus, I judge each science book on organization, content and ease-of-use. The book's strongest quality is organization. There are six, color coated chapters. Bobo could choose what type of experiment he wanted to do by the colors on the side of the page. Each experiment has an ingredients list, steps, explanation and fun facts.

Slime and Goo, Totally Gross, That's Gas-tastic!, Crazy Colors, Incredible and Edible and Create Your Own concoctions are the chapters that make up this book. Each chapter has several experiments varying in difficulty. Bobo can't read on his own, yet, so I read the experiments for him. I'm not sure what age this book is for because the illustrations are youngish, but the language is challenging (for my non-scientific brain). It also has funny comments in the margins, which remind me of Origami Yoda.

I could easily use this book for the experiments we do each week. Bobo could choose an experiment based on the illustrations provided. Some of the experiments call for ingredients you may not have on hand, like Pop Rocks or Mentos and Diet Soda. So if Bobo chose one, we'd have to run to the store before we could complete the project.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book. I found experiments I hadn't seen before and old favorites. My only complaint is that I couldn't find the experiment on the right of the cover (the orange fizzy one). Bobo really wanted to do that one.

I'll share an experiment we did from the book later on today. Most of them are very messy, so I didn't always take pictures. It's hard to hold a camera when your hands are covered in Gooey Glop.